Why do things change?
by Itigo Lover
Summary: Ryoma comes back from America and he sees that somethings have changed. Sakuno is still her oldself from one year ago, shy as always, but how about her feelings? Can Ryoma understand them?Is one of the Regulars going to be in his way? Read and see!
1. Tadaima

Why does everything have to change?

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**California, United States**

"Ne Ryoma" Echizen Ryoga called his son.

"Nani?" Ryoma replied not bothering to look at his dad.

"Do you miss living in Japan?"

"..."

"Because we have to go back..."

"Eh?"

**Japan, Seishun Academy**

"Sakuno-chan!" Tomoka called her friend.

"Nani?" Sakuno replied.

"Do you wanna see the Regulars practicing?"

'Echizen...I wonder how you have been doing...' Sakuno thought.

"Ok" Sakuno told Tomoka while following her friend to the tennis courts.

**At the tennis courts...**

"All Regulars please gather around" Coach Sumire called.

"Hai!" Everyona replied while heading to where their coach was standing.

"What I'm about to tell you is to be kept a secret between us, understand?" Sumire said while looking at each of them in the eyes.

The Regulars looked at each other to see if everyone was as surprised as theirselves.

"Hai" they promised while looking at their Coach dying of curiosity.

"This morning I received an e-mail from Ryoma's father and he said that they are coming back because of their family which lives in Japan."

Everyone was surprised. Was the small cocky guy coming back?

Everyone smiled and once again looked around them to see each other's reaction.

"Yey!!! I'm so ureshii right now!" Momo sempai said happily.

"Why are you happy?" Tomoka asked entering the tennis court.

"Oh it's because um um um" Momo sempai tried to tell Tomoka and Sakuno but Inui putted his hand over Momo's big mouth stopping him from finishing his sentence. Everyone looked at Sumire wishing she could let them tell Sakuno-chan what was happening.

When Sumire saw all those cute cat's eyes coming from her team she couldn't resist to let them tell her grandaughter and her noisy friend the big news.

"Sakuno-chan, Ryoma is coming back!" Eiji-sempai said loud enough for Sakuno to hear but quiet enough to not let the others hear what they were talking about.

"But you two are not supposed to tell anyone, understand?" Coach Sumire asked with a serious expression.

Sakuno was so happy at that time that she couldn't answer so she just nodded.

"Hai" Tomoka promised a little disappointed.

"Then why don't we start organizing a big party for Ochibi?" Momo asked.

"Ok!" everyone shouted in unison.

Sakuno was so happy that she couldn't contain the tears that she was holding since Eiji-sempai told her that Echizen was coming back.

"Daijiyobu Sakuno-chan?" Fuji-sempai asked seeing tears rolling down Sakuno's cute and delicate face.

"Ha-hai" she replied wiping the tears.

The Regulars, Coach Sumire, Sakuno and Tomoka started organizing the stuff for Ryoma's party since he was coming back the day after tomorrow.

**Day Ryoma's coming back...**

Coach Sumire had asked Echizen Ryoga what time they were going to arrive, what gate and which airport. The Regulars, Sakuno, Coach Sumire and Tomoka arrived at the airport 20 minutes before so they could find the gate.

When the plane arrived Sakuno's heart started beating faster, she couldn't wait to see Echizen.

"Yo! Isn't that Ochibi?" Momo asked pointing to a boy wearing a white Fila cap.

When Echizen heard his name he slowly rose his head and saw the Regulars pointing and screaming happily. When he looked at the scene more careful he could see that Ryuzaki was also there.

'What are they doing here?' he thought.

"Yo Ryoma!" Momo called.

Ryoma didn't say anything, but looked at them.

"Osashiburi!" said Fuji and Eiji in unison.

"Osashiburi..." Ryoma replied not looking at his sempais.

Ryoma slowly walked towards Sakuno and stopped right in front of her.

"Oh" he said looking to his left, so he wouldn't have to do eye contact with Sakuno.

"Osashiburi Echizen"

Ryoma was now looking to his right when he said, "For how long have you been calling me Echizen? You can call me by my first if you like..."

Sakuno never heard Echizen-cough-Ryoma say so much to her in one minute.

"Hai, I will call you Ryoma from now on..." Sakuno replied.

'I can see that he's not as arrogant and quiet as before...' Sakuno thought.

"You are as quiet as before ne?" Ryoma told her.

Sakuno blushed and then told him, "Ryoma can call me by my first name too..."

"Um" he said while nodding.

"Sorry for interrupting the two if you, but can we leave this crowded airport as soon as possible and go to that place...?" Eiji asked.

"Haiii!" everyone said in unison.

Ryoma looked at Sakuno and gave her a smile. Sakuno seeing his smile blushed and smiled back.

At the park...

"We are here!!" Momo shouted happily.

He jumped off the bus and started running in circles. When everyone got off the bus they started heading to the place where they were going to have a picnic. In this park there were many tennis courts and three volleyball courts. Sakuno practiced tennis with Eiji-sempai everyday including weekends when Ryoma was in America and now she was in the level of the Regulars, but all Regulars didn't know that except for Eiji-sempai, and Sakuno didn't join the tennis club the past year when Ryoma was in America, she chose to join the volleyball club instead and she was going to become captain next year. She was really good at volleyball since she played tennis everyday and had a lot of strength in her arms and was a fast runner.

"This place is so kirei!" Sakuno said while taking a look around the cherry blossom trees.

"yup and it has a lot of tennnis courts!" Fuji said happily.

The Regulars headed to the place where Coach Sumire had planned to have the picnic.

There was a red blanket spread out on the floor and on top of it there was tempura, sushi, sashimi, yakisoba and all kinds of Japanese food.

"Wow!" Momo said while his jaw was wide opened.

Sakuno giggled seeing Momo-sempai's face.

"Let's eat!" Momo jokingly ordered.

"Itadakimasu." everyone said before starting to eat the delicious food that Sakuno and Coach Sumire had provided.

Everyone thought that the food was oishii.

"Let's go have a match!" Momo-sempai suggested.

"Ok" everyone said.

When Momo-sempai suggested to have a tennis match Ryoma was happy he looked at Sakuno, but she wasn't looking at him like she used to do one year ago, she was now looking at someone else. This someone was Eiji-sempai.

**Did you enjoy reading this story? I hope you did! Please leave some review for me! I'm finishing to update my profile so now I have some polls about my stories... So please visit my profile. PS Read my first story...It's called Love vs Friendship! ^^ Arigatou**


	2. The Tennis Match

" " = Talking

' ' = Thinking

The tennis match

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Ryoma, Eiji, Sakuno, Inui and Momo went to the tennis courts. There, they decided to play doubles, the problem was that they didn't know how to divide the teams. Since it was an odd number Inui told them that he would just look and mark the points.

"I wanna be with Sakuno-chan!" Eiji said with excitement.

'What's going on?' Ryoma thought.

"Ok!" Sakuno replied happily and jogged to Eiji-sempai's side.

'What did I miss here???' Ryoma thought while seeing that Eiji-sempai and Sakuno had become _more _close than one year ago.

Eiji and Sakuno took their positions on the other side of the tennis courts. Eiji was going to survey first and Sakuno was at the front. Ryoma knew how much Sakuno sucked at tennis, so he had to worry not to hit the ball to fast or it could accidentally hit her.

Ryoma was the first one to receive, Eiji-sempai surveyed and Ryoma easily returned it to his sempai. Eiji hit it to Momo's side and Momo sent the ball to Sakuno chan. The ball was high so Sakuno rose her arm and did a smash. The ball went in Momo's direction and hitted the line.

"15-0" Inui informed them.

Everyone was impressed except for Eiji.

"Sakuno chan your aiming got better!" Eiji-sempai told Sakuno while getting ready to survey the next ball.

---

After a hour they finished a game. They were tired, so they decided not to play the usual 6 games. Sakuno and Eiji won by an advantage point.

'Sakuno has been practicing?' Ryoma thought a little confused.

"Yey!!! We won!" Eiji sempai screamed and headed towards Sakuno to give her a high ten.

"All because of Eiji-sempai!" Sakuno told her sempai with a cute smile.

Ryoma observed the scene quietly not knowing what to think about it. 'Everything changed…Sakuno used to say that it was all thanks to me, but now….' His thought was interrupted by Momo-sempai yelling, "Yo Ryoma!! Are you just going to stand there for the whole day?"

Ryoma looked at his sempai with narrow eyes and then proceeded to the picnic area.

This chapter was kind of short…gomen. I have to work on my other story too, so it's very busy for watashi… Reviews are welcomed!


	3. Changes

"…" = Talking

'…' = Thinking

Going back to school

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When Ryoma got home after the tennis match that he had earlier his dad was in the living room watching television with Karupin on his lap.

"Okaeri" Ryoga said when Ryoma entered the house.

"Tadaima" Ryoma replied sounding bored.

"I have some news…" Ryoga started.

Ryoma kept walking to the kitchen to get a cup of orange juice.

"Tomorrow school is starting again…" Ryoga said trying to catch his son's attention but still being ignored.

Ryoma drank the orange juice and left the empty glass on the table.

"Your mom decided to change school though…" Ryoga finally said.

Ryoma looked up to his dad to see if he was kidding but he had the same stupid face as always so he wasn't. Ryoga wanted his son's reply, Ryoma headed to his room and replied quietly but loud enough for his dad to hear "Hn"

---

"Echizen Ryoma desu, Yoroshiku onegaishimasu." Ryoma said while standing in front of his new classroom.

This was his first day at his new school, and he decided to forget about what had happened yesterday.

'Why do I have to care if Sakuno and Eiji are together?' he asked himself. 'I don't care' he whispered to himself.

At Seigaku...

"Ohayo" Sakuno said when she saw Tomoka.

"Ohayo"

"You look so down..."

"Ryoma-sama is not coming to school today..."

"Tomoka, he just came back yesterday and maybe he's tired from the plane."

"No...he won't be coming back to Seigaku..."

"What..."

"He went to Kanashime Gakkou"

"But if he didn't tell any of us...how can you be so sure?"

"I have friends at that school…"

"Oh"

-silence-

"Itsureshimasu" Sakuno said while running towards the tennis courts where the regulars were practicing.

"Hey Sakuno!" Eiji-sempai called when he saw her coming and stopped what he was doing.

"Senpai..." Sakuno replied sadly.

"What happened?" Eiji senpai asked worried "You look sad..."

"Did you know that Ryoma was moving to Kanashime Junior High School?" Sakuno asked holding back the tears.

"What? Ochibi is moving and he didn't tell us?" Momo asked with sad puppy eyes.

"He didn't tell you?" Sakuno asked with tears accumulating in her eyes.

"No" the regulars replied quietly a little hurt since Ryoma hadn't told them either.

"Was today his first day?" Fuji asked not smiling.

"Today..." Sakuno replied while clearing the tears that were slowing rolling down her sad face.

The Regulars looked at each other, they didn't know what to say to make her feel better.

"Sakuno, if it will make you feel better we can visit Ryoma after school today." Eiji-senpai said kindly.

Sakuno looked up to her senpai and smiled. 'He sure knows how to make me feel better...' Sakuno thought already feeling a little better.

After school...

After school the Regulars and Sakuno headed to Kanashime Junior High to talk to Ryoma.

When they arrived there and entered the school many people were staring at them. Girls from Kanashime Junior High School had a lot of cute girls and handsome boys, but the regulars and Sakuno were being cautiously being observed by the Kanashime students.

"What's happening over there?" Fuji asked pointing to a crowd of people.

"Let's go check it out" Kaido said heading towards the crowd.

Even though people were all pushing each other to see what they wanted to see, they gave way to the Regulars and Sakuno when they were passing through the crowd. They stopped in front of the tennis courts. There they saw Echizen and some other players practicing, and it seemed that Echizen was giving a 'show' on his very first day of school.

"Isn't that Ochibi?" Momo asked surprised to find Echizen at a different school.

Sakuno nodded looking straight at Ryoma practicing.

"Sakuno, let's wait until practice is finished before we can talk to him…We don't want to cause any problems…" Eiji-sempai calmly told Sakuno with his hands on one of her shoulders.

Sakuno still not looking away from Ryoma nodded. 'I just wanna see him playing tennis right now…' Sakuno thought.

Echizen was playing beautifully and it was obvious that on the last game he didn't use his full strength. His survey, his stroke, his hair moving with the wind, all that made Sakuno not look away from him for a second. She was even scared of blinking, she didn't want to miss a moment that she was having watching _him _playing tennis since he was studying at another school and wouldn't go practice at Seigaku anymore.

---

When practice was finished the other students on the court seemed really surprised that Ryoma could play tennis so well for his height and age. The crowd that was surrounding the tennis courts was still there watching Ryoma and the rest of the players with wide eyes.

"Yo Ryoma!" Momo-sempai called as soon Echizen got out of the tennis courts.

Ryoma turned slowly to where the voice came from and saw the Regulars standing a few feet away from him. He didn't move.

'What are they doing here?' he questioned.

The Regulars slowly walked towards him and stopped when they were less than a meter away from him. Ryoma stared at the floor not daring to look at his sempais' faces. But then he heard steps coming from behind the Regulars and he looked up, it was the one that he was waiting for…

'Sakuno…'

Sakuno came out from behind the Regulars and slowly walked towards Echizen, and stopping when she was right in front of him. She looked him into his beautiful and intense eyes, and him too, he just stared deep into Sakuno's eyes not moving a muscle.

"Ryoma…" Sakuno whispered.

People were staring even more and now they were surrounding the Regulars, Echizen and Sakuno. The Regulars wanted them to talk to each other but no one dared to say anything since the two of them were staring at each other with eyes so intense.

"Why….?" Sakuno whispered breaking the long silent.

Ryoma didn't say anything nor stopped looking at Sakuno.

"Why did you leave without telling?" Sakuno whispered a little louder.

"I would have to leave with or without telling you anyways…" Ryoma replied shortly.

Sakuno turned and ran out of Kanashime Academy with tears rolling down her cheeks.

**----- Author's Note -----**

I thought the last part was sad… Even though Sakuno and the Regulars went to see Ryoma, he acts as cold as always… : ( I hope you liked this chapter though ^^ I took a LOOONG time to update but it's because I was working hard on my other story which is called 'Love vs Friendship' and that's longer than this one. :D Thank you for reading, and please review!


	4. Note

"…" = Talking

'…' = Thinking

The Meeting Part I

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Sakuno hadn't talk to Ryoma since last time they met, but she thought about him and about the last incident all the time.

The next morning she headed to school and Eiji senpai was waiting for her at the school gate.

"Ohayo!" Sakuno said as if nothing had happened.

"Ohayo..." Eiji answered with a worried face.

Sakuno smiled weakly and started walking towards the tennis courts with Eiji.

"It's been almost a month that we don't talk to Echizen..." Eiji said quietly.

Sakuno looked down.

---

After school...

Eiji had gone to a park to practice tennis against the wall. He was going to start again when he saw Ryoma at the tennis court across from where he was. He walked towards where Ryoma was and stopped at the fence.

"Echizen!" Eiji yelled.

Echizen turned and saw Eiji standing outside the tennis court. He slowly walked towards Eiji and stopped in front of him.

"Ryoma, Sakuno has been depressed since last time you saw her..." Eiji said controlling his anger towards Ryoma.

Ryoma looked down so Eiji wouldn't see his sad expression.

"Eiji, do you like Sakuno?" Ryoma asked in a low and quiet voice.

"Yes, I do" Eiji replied with irritation in his voice.

Ryoma's heart started to beat faster.

"...more than a friend, she's like a sister to me..." Eiji continued quietly.

Ryoma felt ashamed and stupid at the same time, 'Why was I jealous of something that never existed?' he asked himself irritated.

"I have to go, see you around..." Eiji told Ryoma walking away.

"Jiya" Ryoma replied quietly.

Next day at school...

Sakuno entered her class lifeless. She walked towards her desk and saw a note on her desk.

'Please don't let this be a prank!' she thoght worried, she had enough problems already to receive a prank.

She slowly unfolded the note. She couldn't believe what she was reading. It wasn't a prank, it was a note. A note from Ryoma.

"Can you meet me at the beach?...you don't have to, if you don't want to...Anyways I will be waiting..." he wrote.

'He actually wrote me a letter?' Sakuno thought surprised.

**At the beach...**

'Please come...' Ryoma thought worried.

He suddenly saw Sakuno walking towards him, she had her head down and when she was standing right in front of him she looked up for a little bit and then looked down again.

"Hey…" he said quietly.

"Um" she replied quietly.

"I'm sorry for last time. I was acting tough because…"

She looked up to see his face.

"...because I was jealous" he explained, struggling to say the word 'jealous'.

Sakuno made a face which said "What the heck are you talking about? Is it about Eiji? You are soooo bakka!!!"

Sakuno was very angry at Ryoma. She had cried when the Regulars told her that he was coming back and when he finally comes back, he makes her sad. She started to complain when Ryoma wrapped her around his arms. Sakuno's position was awkward, she didn't move a muscle. Ryoma slowly pushed her away. She looked up to see his expression. He looked at her with intense eyes, his face was coming closer and closer. She closed her eyes, and Ryoma's lips softly touched hers.

Ryoma removed his lips from Sakuno and looked in her eyes.

'My first kiss…' thought Sakuno.

"What's wrong?" Ryoma asked Sakuno whose face was red.

She looked down and whispered "I…Ryoma….aishiteruyo…"

Ryoma smiled and wrapped her in his arms again.

"Shall we go?" he asked.

Sakuno nodded once and followed Ryoma.

**---Author's Notes---**

This chapter was short, but it was very special to everyone! ^^

Sakuno's first kiss was stolen by Ryoma, and she confesses to him. I tried to describe how they kissed the best as I could, I hope you understood. If you did, please tell me by reviewing! Thank you for reading. Please review!


	5. Feelings

"…" = Talking

'…' = Thinking

Feelings

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It was a spring evening and Ryuzaki Sakuno was sitting on her bed wondering about Ryoma.

'Yesterday he kissed me… his lips were so soft and they gently touched mine. What will the kiss change? My feelings are more intense now, after my first kiss. Will he keep ignoring me? Will he keep being silent around me? If he really likes me, then will he tell the Regulars? I mean, I don't care if everyone knows or not, I just want to be with him… I told him 'I love you'. Sooo embarrassing!'

Sakuno blushed a little remembering the quiet words which she had told him the day before.

'Should I go talk to him about yesterday?'

--Riiing--

Sakuno jumped as her cell phone rang noisily. She crawled out of her bed and picked up her cell phone.

"Hello?" Sakuno said clicking her cell phone's green buttom.

"Sakuno, it's Ryoma" the voice in the other side of the line said.

All the words vanished from Sakuno's mouth when she heard that the person that she was talking to her on the phone was Ryoma.

"Sakuno, are you still there?"

"Y-yes" Sakuno replied. 'Shoot, my voice was shaking!' she thought as soon as she heard how the word had gone out of her mouth.

"Can we meet?" he asked her.

"Sure... Where are you right now?"

"My house"

"I can go there if you want to…"

"Is it ok with you?"

"Yup, no problem."

"Then I will be waiting"

An awkward silence passed when Ryoma finally said good bye.

"Bye, Sakuno"

"Bye"

He hung up. Sakuno still had her phone on her ears. She slowly removed it and placed it on her desk.

'I can't believe I'm finally getting a chance to see him!' though Sakuno. 'It seems like ages…even though I met him yesterday…'

She ran out of the house. Luckily, her grandma was at the Seishun Academy taking care of some papers. 'Poor oba-chan, she has to work on a Saturday…' Sakuno had thought.

Sakuno ran as fast as she could still trying to be careful not to trip over her own feet, which happened frequently.

When she got to Ryoma's house, she stopped right in front of it. Suddenly, the door opened and she saw Ryoma with a tennis ball and a racquet. He didn't see her, he was heading to the back of the house. Sakuno hesitated a moment, but then went in the gates of Ryoma's house and the temple. She quietly headed to the back of the house, she stopped when she saw Ryoma. Ryoma was hitting the tennis ball against the wall.

'He looks so cool playing tennis…'Sakuno thought quietly.

She started to slow walk towards him. When he heard someone coming he took the ball into his hands and turned around. Behind him, he saw Sakuno. He smiled and started walking towards her.

"Sakuno, when we weren't talking to each other I felt weird, and I was thinking about it these days and only ended up with one reason…" Ryoma said when he was right in front of her.

Sakuno looked at his face, so beautifully gracious, so different from her.

Ryoma wouldn't continue so she asked "What is the reason?"

"I love you" his head was down but after he said those words it rose looking at her.

A part of Sakuno wanted to turn away because of embarrassment but another part wanted to stay like this forever, looking at his beautiful eyes.

"I love you, too" she told him.

Ryoma took two steps closer and grabbed Sakuno's waist. He slowly inclined down towards her, and they lips were gently touching. Sakuno wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed their lips a little harder.

They had to stop to breath, when they did they blushed (a lot). Then they looked at each other and smiled.

"Since when…" Sakuno started but then stopped.

Ryoma looked her and then asked "What?"

Sakuno hesitated for a moment and then continued "Since when did you start liking me?" she was looking down so Ryoma wouldn't see her embarrassed face.

Ryoma thought for a moment before replying "I realized how much I liked you, just a few days ago, but looking back now, I liked you from a really long time ago, but never realized it."

Sakuno was happy with Ryoma's answer.

"Why are you smiling?"

"Nothing" Sakuno said smiling even more.

Ryoma smiled too, because he knew that she had liked his answer to her question.

--- Author's Note ---

This was the last chapter for "Why do things change?" (at least for now). I would like to thank everyone who has been reading my story or stories and people who reviewed (I found some of the reviews very helpful and they made me motivated to continue ^^. Thank you for everyone's support and see you later :D


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